What an astounding post Sandycove.

I don't echo your comments on the Masters because I am blinkered to all the nonsense around it I suppose, but have to agree on the US Open, although despite their trickery they do generally throw up a genuine major winner (Andy North accepted).

As for the Open, again I have to agree. StAndrews is purely there because of tradition, it should be retained, but on a much less frequent schedule than it is at present.

Others such as Hoylake are truly disappointing venues. I had the pleasure of being there for a practice day and the Saturday two years ago, and largely due to the organisation, weather & Sergio making a Saturday charge, found the event to be the best tournament I had ever been to. However the course was wholly disappointing, and just about the weakest links course I had been to. I could certainly name over a dozen non-Open roster courses that are better, and yet Portrush, Royal County Down and others are continually ignored in favour of the old favourites.

Forgive me the politics, Bill but, while Ireland is indeed an island, it is, first, a country, and the country is no more British than, say, Portugal or Belgium.

It would be just as appropriate to hold an Open in the Loire Valley as it would be in Kerry.

I suppose the Ryder Cup added to the confusion in 1979, when it invited European players to join the team to rejuvenate the competition. So now we have the likes of Darren Clarke, who is British, but marks his ball with a shamrock, linked with Padraig Harrington, who is not.

And, more confusing, the Ryder Cup was represented by a British & Irish team before 1979, and the "Irish" part did not refer solely to the North. The first golfer from the Republic of Ireland to play on the Ryder Cup team was Harry Bradshaw in 1953. Fred Daly from Northern Ireland first played in 1947.

Indeed. I think the Ulster argument must be getting louder now that Hoylake made it back onto the roster. It was fair enough during the troubles not to go there, but it's a far different Northern Ireland now to what it was then.


I always wondered why he did that? He's a protestant isn't he? While I realise that sportsmen generally get a lot of leeway, I can imagine a fair few orange bigots not taking too kindly to that?

GB & I dawg? Love being able to nit you! Thanks for your thoughtful posts. It was a pleasure reading them.

I'm not sure what to make of the question as it is worded.

An American, I love "our Open", and while I understand that Euros have their own that they likely and understandably prefer, I don't think that draws away from my first choice.

The Masters is a wonderful and special event for many reasons and an incredible television property, and I can see both how other Americans could prefer it and how Euros might think of it as the only possible competitor to their own event, "the real Open."

I think the british open pretty much sucks, but most of my problem with it doesn't have much to do with the quality of the tournament itself. First the weather is always horrible, and none of the courses are scenic at all. Most of the courses they play on have had just about the absolute minimum amount of work you could do to a random flat patch of land and still be considered a golf course. Maybe some people think that's what makes them great, but I don't. With a couple exceptions, the holes are totally nondescript and leave no impression when watched on TV, unlike Augusta or most of the US Open tracks. And the camerawork is just absolutely horrible due to the foreign TV feed. Still, in terms of being the biggest to win or most important, I can see why euros would think it is the best since it's the oldest and golf is a very historical sport.
I don't care much about quality of field because I think pretty much everyone with a reasonable chance to win gets in to all four anyway. The US Open, Masters, and British all have their merits and I could see someone choosing any of them. The PGA is just a worse version of the US Open though. They should try and separate themselves somehow.

This is such a LOL post it's hard to know where to start. I voted for the The Open, and really it's just for interest sake that there's a poll, I've even said myself that links golf looks bad on telly, however that's surely not a reason to criticise, and especially based on these comments.....

Really? Hoyalke was played in heat of over 30 degress all week for a start. And what has horrible weather got to do with the tournament? The sad fact is that it's usually the opposite, and too calm for the true test of links golf to come to the fore. Is playing in the sweat pit of the deep south in August for the PGA better? Unlike Augusta yet again this year, or the frequent interuptions to play you get in US events, it's very very rare to see a delay for weather in the UK, so perhaps if anything, the weather is too GOOD for a major?

I suggest you go and play on them then, as you clearly haven't got a clue what you're talking about.

Correct, that's the point, they haven't needed to have bulldozers ploughing through them, the terrrain is already there for a great course. Reall tits or artificially enhanced, which do you prefer? You'll also find with the exception of most of StAndrews, and a large part of Hoylake that your opinion is factually inaccurate, but like Augusta, it's very hard to show undulating terrain on 2D TV.

Augusta yes, whereas in general you see one US golf course you've seen them all. Other than the 18th at Pebble Beach, and 17th at the Player's, I can't picture a single hole in my mind. But many holes from Open courses spring to mind in seconds.

LOL, BBC's coverage blows away anything we get from the US, and it's not often we can defend the BBC over here.

You seem to be under the illusion that it's only Brits/Europeans that would vote for the Open, and vice versa. I'm sure most of us are a little less parochial than that?

Finally, I can at least agree with you there.

I struggled with the wording of the question shemp, because I think most golfers find the Masters to be the best spectacle, it's always immaculate, it comes right at the start of the golf season, and especially in Britain signals the clubs coming out of the shed for the season.

However that wasn't really what I was asking. If you were a pro, which one is the one you had to win? If you were an athlete, it would be the Olympics, a snooker player, then it's the Wolrd Champs at the crucible, or a darts player, then it's the Embassy. Like tennis, golf has four grand slam events which are all equal in status; as far as being considered as a major winner, no-one would go "oh yes, he has a major, but it's only the PGA", and my question was based on pick one if it was the only one you could win. Not which makes the best TV or whatever, but purely which would be your career highlight.

I think if the question was asked, "which is the best major to watch", it would be a landslide for the Masters.

I don't know. Craig Stadler getting on the first tee, already with full on ass sweat that spread from his knees to tributaries formed from his tit and pit sweat, is one of my fondest memories of the PGA.

LOL

I worded that badly, looks like an Open could be held in Wales but not N. Ireland? Would you believe I have a degree in Geography (srsly)? But that was a long time ago.

Your geography lesson is excellent Bill, but I don;t think that stops the Open from being held in Ulster, it just hasn't been.

actually, the PGA has the statictically toughest field year in year out if you go by world golf rankings. but i agree that the US Open is the most important.

biggest field. hardest courses. plus, this is where the USGA gets to make all of the their arbitrary rules seem relevant.

1951 Portrush as Sandycove has pointed out to me.

The PGA is the major that underachievers (Davis Love) or nobodies (Shaun Micheel) win when Tiger is off his game. So that's out.

The Open doesn't get as many of the PGA players and no offense to my friends across the pond, but that means the fields aren't as strong. So that's out.

The Masters has wonderful heritage, but at the end of the day it's played on a (very nice) country club course. If they didn't trick up the greens every year, it would be a driver-wedge bomb fest and the pros would carve it up. So while it is a wonderful putting contest, that's out too.

The US Open has the strongest fields and the toughest courses. So that's it.

111 votes and not one single vote for the PGA, although 5 people said they're all equal. No respect for the strongest field in golf!